ABSTRACT
In 1843, Italian patriot Vincenzo Gioberti urged all nations to "turn their eyes to Italy, their ancient and loving mother, who holds the seeds of their regeneration." He was alluding not only to the special place of Italy as the center of Western Christianity—a position that inspired a sense of community rooted deeply in the Middle Ages and beyond. Once the country's political leaders awakened their compatriots to their historical legacy, Italians could look at Austria with a justifiable sense of cultural superiority. The humanist pope Pius II maintained extensive contacts with intellectuals from the region and his anti-Hussite history of Bohemia became the main source of information about east central Europe for educated Western contemporaries. The revolutions of 1848-1849 thrust Italy and east central Europe into the European mainstream and mutual interaction. Of all the centrifugal forces that challenged the integrity of the Habsburg realm, the Italian irredentism was the most irreconcilable.
